I'm in China now. Can't access Soundcloud, Youtube, Facebook, or Twitter at all. Recently it seems like they added Google to the list as well. So before long I'll set up a VPN and I'll be good to go but at the moment just worrying about finding a decent job and a place to live.

Anyway, sounds like a great night, maybe one day I'll be able to swing though Pittsburgh and check it out! Peace out my brother.

So jealous! Please check out /r/futurefunkairlines if you get a chance. It's been a little chill lately, many of us "veteran pilots" are really busy in our meatsphere lives these days. I'm hoping to get back on track and heat things up again soon tho. Cheers.

Pretty sure this is Pipecock's night, maybe you should be giving him some props?

Yeah, uh, props Pipecock! Can't listen through the Great Firewall but I'm sure it's a helluva set, really wish I could have been there.

Also I should mention that this submission disappeared for me for some reason. I saw it briefly on the reddit front page, then reloaded and it was gone, loaded the subreddit page, not there, had to go to your user page to see it again. Reddit does some weird shit sometimes.

Thanks a lot for raising the issue. It is important to make sure no one feels like their contribution isn't being minimized just cause it isn't trendy or whatever.

However for me this seems to be a good opportunity to dump a little rant on y'all that's been brewing in my head for a while. Basically it's this: I feel like reddit in its current incarnation has about reached its full potential. From here, it's probably all downhill for the site unless the admins finally step up and make some long-overdue changes that are needed to turn things around.

On much of reddit I perceive a very toxic culture brewing. It's hateful, juvenile, simple-minded, and intolerant of dissent. Personally I feel like the structure of reddit encourages this shit. (Note: if you're the kind of guy who rails against "SJWs" then you should probably just stop reading now. In fact I'd be cool if you fucked right off.)

The fact is reddit is by and large misogynistic, racist, and xenophobic. I'm not talking about all of reddit, but when new users come to the site, a lot of what they probably see is this hateful circlejerking.

This is NOT what FFA is about. For me, we represent rave culture, essentially. Rave has always been about celebrating diversity. Fucking house music (and disco before it) was INVENTED by gay blacks and Latinos. House and garage are actually named after gay clubs. I know it's sappy, but where in "PLUR" does it say "hate your neighbor"? It's not just these "politically correct" issues either -- in some circles there is a lot of talk about the fluff principle and how the structure of reddit encourages shitposting and discourages quality content and discussion.

We've also apparently lost quite a few regular users in the past year or so. I have no idea what happened, maybe some of them just made new accounts or whatever. It makes me sad though to think that we might be losing good people because reddit is going to shit.

So now I wonder, what does the future hold for FFA? Can we indefinitely continue to thrive on reddit despite the general shit turn the site as a whole has taken? Am I just being overly sensitive? Could FFA exist independent of reddit?

I have hopes that there will be a new reddit-like site that sorts out some of these issues, and all the shitposters and reflexive downvoters can stay on the old reddit and the rest of us can migrate to something better. Maybe it's just a pipe dream. Barring that, and assuming the current trends on reddit continue, I'd say maybe I'll just move my activity more onto twitter or something. Have yet to even set up that FFA twitter account though. For now maybe if others are sympathetic we can think about ways to delineate ourselves more from the mainstream of reddithate, while allowing FFA to continue to thrive.

One other issue I've seen mentioned in the comments recently is the offensive usernames. Personally I feel like hate speech is generally not ok mainly because it discourages diversity and encourages the suburban white hetero male circlejerk, and if a username is outright hateful it should probably not be allowed here. A lot of usernames toe the line though. I don't really want to single anyone out at this point. However, brittneyspearsvagina, I guess your choice of handle is relatively benign but I'm mostly just curious about the reasons for choosing these IDs. I mean, if you think about it from the POV of a woman who just stepped from some typical sexist boyzone reddit circlejerk into FFA for the first time, and she sees that kind of username occurring relatively frequently, is she going to feel welcome here? I'm only asking you my friend because you seem in general like a cool open-minded person who is willing to engage in open and honest discussion. If I'm off-base, don't hesitate to call me out.

Actually, if anyone even bothered to read this far, thanks!

Tl;dr: IMHO reddit is going to shit. What does this bode for the prospects of FFA?

I know why vipassana is in general is a very weak method of introducing people to meditation. The only thing I really feel the need to "investigate" is why it is obsessively preached by the hivemind here, and why people take it so personally when it is criticized in any way.

If you value impermanence so much, then you should recognize that there is no real absolute universal truth contained in vipassana, it's just one of many dogmas out there, but for some reason it's very trendy at the moment. Probably because it is such a limited and myopic perspective that it appeals to many of the rigidly linear mechanistic thinkers here who are so afraid to confront their own biases and prejudices to so quick to condemn those of others.

Yes. Boracay definitely has some world-class diving. I think it's even possible to see whale sharks there, but I never did. I also paid a little too much for my cert. cause I didn't shop around. I was actually hoping to do some trekking on a mostly undeveloped island near there, but the timing was no good and the same guy who leads the treks was also a scuba instructor and he suggested I take the class. I'm glad cause he was a great teacher and really cool guy, but if you're looking for a bargain, definitely shop around. There are also plenty of schools in Cebu, and probably many other places in the Phils too.

(Also, that teachers' lady friend, who I took a kite surfing class from, was the one who told the horror story about the ladyboys. This was also in Boracay, and she said there was this really nice hippie Belgian guy who had just arrived in the islands and was trying to meet up with a friend. Instead he met the ladyboys, thought it would be cool to party with them, and ended up drugged, raped, and then they made him take out money with his ATM and give it to them.)

Palawan is generally recommended as the most scenic part of the country. Boracay is more of a low-key resort island but still very nice. Cebu is good if you're looking for something more urban and economical.

General advice: Filipinos are very friendly, but the friendliest-seeming folks are often touts or scammers. Also, watch out for ladyboys. I've heard some horror stories about them, for real, especially involving drugging peoples' drinks.

I agree that it's a great place, but curious what you mean by "this incredible vibe in the cities"? I've only been to Manila and Cebu, but other than the traffic, Manila really has a lot more going for it IMHO. Maybe I should check out some other cities, or there's something I missed in Cebu? Cheers.

I don't buy vinyl much anymore. I know that https://www.stompy.com is decent, but they're mostly SF-centered. Of course there's also Amoeba, one of the best music stores in the US. They're more general-interest though, although they have a decent house selection too.